The burly vampire running through the cemetery was fast enough
that not even Spike could gain on him. Down between the stones they ran,
Tara, who had been right behind Spike, fell further behind by the second.
Coming around the corner of a crypt, the vampire vanished from sight for a
few seconds. During those few seconds, a loud yell was heard, and the by
now familiar sound a body impacting against stone hard enough to crack the
stone.
Spike rounded the crypt, and skidded to a halt in shock. A short
blonde girl in mostly leather clothing was brutally beating the vamp,
dodging his blows all the while. He stared while she continued to pound
on the outmatched vampire, long enough for Tara to catch up and pant for
air next to him. She gasped out, "Buffy?"
Buffy didn't respond as she lifted the weakly resisting vamp with
one hand, hurling him against the wall of the crypt again, followed by a
wooden stake that finished him.
"That'll put marzipan in your pie-plate, bingo!"
*****
"Bot's got skills," Xander said approvingly as the entire gang
walked away from the fight.
"Yes, well done, Willow. However..."
Tara interrupted Giles. "Why does she keep talking about food?"
Willow blushed and looked over at the happy expression on the
bot's face. "I think her quip database got corrupted when I tried to
upgrade it and crosslinked to the cooking database."
Spike's low voice cut thought the happy conversation. "It's still
not going to be enough. She's out there, somewhere. We need a real
slayer."
"Maybe she won't come back," Xander said hopefully.
"Of course she will. We've been over this a thousand times. If
only I hadn't carried her. If only it hadn't been enough. If only we'd
found out sooner. Well, it happened. I don't know how, I don't know why,
but she came back. I /saw/ her, damnit." Spike finished ranting and they
walked on in silence.
Willow was the first to break it. "No one blames you Spike."
"I blame myself. It had to have been my blood, I was the only one
there, and I certainly had enough of it leaking out that night."
What went unsaid was that a slayer could not be turned, nor was it
said that one who was turned should combine the strength of a slayer with
the strength of a vampire.
*****
Giles read the codex passage again. Like most of the prophecies,
it was fairly clear. And what it so clearly indicated was that Buffy
would return.
"The destruction of the golem shall signal the return."
When her body had vanished from the morgue, they had acted quickly
to cover up her death, holding an extremely private memorial and placing a
stone that Xander had had made in a small clearing. The soul binding had
failed, however. Willow and Tara had tried a number of times, eventually
coming to the unpleasant conclusion that Buffy's soul was beyond their
reach. The robot had been repaired, and the masquerade that the Slayer
was still alive had begun.
Then Giles had checked the codex. The literal prophecy could be
thwarted, yes. Turn off the bot, and it would not be destroyed. But that
would not prevent the return, it would simply allow it to happen without
anyone finding out. Instead, Giles had asked Willow to spend as much time
as possible on the bot's combat abilities. If it was Buffy herself, or
rather, her vampire counterpart, who was to destroy the Buffybot, then
either the improvements would be irrelevant, or perhaps, they might be
just enough for the bot to escape and warn them.
It was worth the effort. Willow had done an impressive job, with
Spike assisting her by tracking down Warren, and intimidating him into
providing help. Warren had eventually left Sunnydale, leaving behind a
note saying he was never coming back, don't come looking no matter what,
and leave him alone. Giles had politely not asked what Spike had done.
It had been months now. Whatever the demon wearing her skin was
planning, it would happen soon.
*****
L.A. seemed exactly the same as always. A bright glittering
veneer covering the second largest demon population in California. Plus
two pretenders. Acting as his own watcher wasn't the only con-game Adam
played. He had an account with the law firm Wolfram & Hart, claiming to
be a type of demon. The firm specialized in demon and vampire clients.
The name rang a faint alarm bell in Buffy's mind, probably just
something Angel had mentioned once. It wasn't likely there were a large
number of firms that catered to demons, of course. But she couldn't quite
remember what it was they had done. It didn't matter. She wasn't the
Slayer anymore, she was just another demon.
They had a meeting at the firm, early on the next day after
arriving. Adam wanted to set up an account for her. It was more than
just a law firm, they'd handle anything she might ever need, and Adam had
set up a financial transfer as well, all part of the keep Buffy out of the
Game plan. Which was fine by her, really. He'd explained on the trip
from Seacouver. He knew what a Slayer was. He knew about her strength.
And he wanted her safely out of the Game. A Slayer that did not stay dead
was a weapon against the vampires. One more immortal dragged into the
game was just a statistic, whether she won or lost. So she needed to
protect herself from the Game. Wolfram & Hart was the first step.
His only miscalculation was that Buffy misunderstood.
*****
Lilah Morgan wasn't having a good morning. She had a meeting with
a very important client in ten minutes, and instead of preparing, she was
listening to a self-important vampire whining about being tossed aside for
a girl who Angel hadn't even seen in over a year, hadn't dated for two
years, had killed him three years ago...
/"Ms. Morgan? Your ten o'clock is here."/
Lilah nearly groaned in relief, touching the intercom button.
"Please show them in." She stood, and made her way around the desk. "I'm
very sorry Darla, but I'll need to continue this later."
Darla momentarily considered killing her, but simply nodded
instead. She missed Lindsey, he always listened to her. She was halfway
across the room when Lilah's next meeting entered, a moderately handsome
man, followed by a short blond girl, who looked up just at that moment,
meeting Darla's eyes. Her feet stopped moving.
Buffy's eyes sparkled with delight. "Darla, weren't you dead?"
Her left arm brushed aside the long jacket, a sword blade appearing from
underneath it in the same motion. "Allow me to correct that."
"Oooo, scary," Darla hissed through her fangs. What in the hell
was she doing here?!
"What, no guns this time? It hardly seems fair without them."
Buffy playfully twirled the sword in her hand.
Lilah could see her bad morning was becoming a very bad morning.
The afternoon wasn't looking good either.
*****
Somehow, it had all settled down without any bloodshed. The older
changeling had simply ordered her to put away her sword without killing
Lilah's assistant, and she had done it. Darla, always quick to seize an
opportunity, had moved to close the door, taking her cue to act as an
assistant simply so she could find out why the Slayer was there.
For that's who she was. Buffy Summers, the Slayer. The one
before Faith, that is. And the other one that Drusilla had killed,
K-something. Yet the shocking part was that she too was a changeling.
Changelings were an unusual kind of demon breed, and more
secretive than most. The one who currently called himself Adam was in
fact their only client of the entire species. At least, until today.
Lilah knew that they were very long-lived, and always adopted into a human
family. The name was from the old stories of the fae swapping a newly
born human for one of their own, allowing human parents to raise the
child.
Darla was surprisingly useful when she was interested in
something, allowing Lilah to concentrate on contract details while Darla
questioned the demons. "You were never the real Slayer?"
Buffy's answering tone was somewhat flippant and amused. "Nope.
You can't have two slayers, but the Council never questioned it."
Lilah handed over the finalized contract to the male demon. "The
funds have been transferred as you've requested. All that remains is to
sign this, and you're all set." She watched as he read it over, then
pricked his finger, signing it in blood as was standard. There was an
odd electrical spark on his finger while he was signing. Lilah
countersigned, handing it next to Buffy.
Buffy cut herself without hesitation, squeezing the finger to
drain a few drops. She then turned her finger up, to watch the sparking
closure of the wound, still something she found amazing to watch. Lilah
found herself exchanging glances with Darla when it happened. Up until
that point, neither one had been quite sure that she really was a demon.
"That should do it. Legally, you are now Joan Elizabeth Miller.
If you have any questions, please feel free to..."
Darla cut her off, "Call her assistant. Anytime, night or day.
After all, it's my job."
*****
Lilah finished reading from her prepared notes. The majority of
the meeting attendees looked mildly bored, which was fine. She had taken
the time to include extraneous detail just for that reason. Not that the
special projects division was normally interesting, except when a project
was completed. She casually slid the notepad onto the table, and reached
back with her hand, as if about to sit down, then stopped and stood
upright again. "Oh, I almost forgot to mention. I had a meeting with
Buffy Summers today, and signed her as a client." She then sat down,
acting as if she hadn't dropped a bombshell.
Dead silence reigned as she straighted her papers, pretending not
to noticed the reactions. As she expected, a single voice came from the
far end of the table. "The Slayer?"
"From Sunnydale, yes, the one you're thinking of. She's not a
Slayer, though. Just a changeling demon." Lilah looked up at the head of
the table. Nathan Reed looked like he was on the verge of a facial
expression.
"A useful alliance. However, will this interfere with the Angel
project?"
Lilah fought to hide her smile. "Darla was in my office when she
arrived. After some initial posturing, they were quite friendly." Nathan
was so disconcerted she noticed a finger tapping the table.
"Cancel the Billy project. You will come up with a proposal to
make use of this connection."
Lilah allowed herself to smile. "Yes, sir."
*****
Buffy's voice made him pause as he reached the door. "He'll find
out eventually."
Adam's response was calm. "And certainly, precipitating it now
was wildly advisable. You should have mentioned you had history here."
"Oh, right. By the way, I have a vampire ex-boyfriend living in
L.A., so let's not go there."
Adam opened the door, surprising the woman standing there with her
hand raised to knock. "Oh, of course! Buffy, you have a guest." He made
his way past her with a grumble.
Buffy frowned, and made her way to the door, finding a rather
unexpected visitor. "Darla." She hesitated for a second. "Come in."
-- End Chapter Two
$Revision: 1.11 $
$Date: 2002/02/07 05:25:45 $
that not even Spike could gain on him. Down between the stones they ran,
Tara, who had been right behind Spike, fell further behind by the second.
Coming around the corner of a crypt, the vampire vanished from sight for a
few seconds. During those few seconds, a loud yell was heard, and the by
now familiar sound a body impacting against stone hard enough to crack the
stone.
Spike rounded the crypt, and skidded to a halt in shock. A short
blonde girl in mostly leather clothing was brutally beating the vamp,
dodging his blows all the while. He stared while she continued to pound
on the outmatched vampire, long enough for Tara to catch up and pant for
air next to him. She gasped out, "Buffy?"
Buffy didn't respond as she lifted the weakly resisting vamp with
one hand, hurling him against the wall of the crypt again, followed by a
wooden stake that finished him.
"That'll put marzipan in your pie-plate, bingo!"
*****
"Bot's got skills," Xander said approvingly as the entire gang
walked away from the fight.
"Yes, well done, Willow. However..."
Tara interrupted Giles. "Why does she keep talking about food?"
Willow blushed and looked over at the happy expression on the
bot's face. "I think her quip database got corrupted when I tried to
upgrade it and crosslinked to the cooking database."
Spike's low voice cut thought the happy conversation. "It's still
not going to be enough. She's out there, somewhere. We need a real
slayer."
"Maybe she won't come back," Xander said hopefully.
"Of course she will. We've been over this a thousand times. If
only I hadn't carried her. If only it hadn't been enough. If only we'd
found out sooner. Well, it happened. I don't know how, I don't know why,
but she came back. I /saw/ her, damnit." Spike finished ranting and they
walked on in silence.
Willow was the first to break it. "No one blames you Spike."
"I blame myself. It had to have been my blood, I was the only one
there, and I certainly had enough of it leaking out that night."
What went unsaid was that a slayer could not be turned, nor was it
said that one who was turned should combine the strength of a slayer with
the strength of a vampire.
*****
Giles read the codex passage again. Like most of the prophecies,
it was fairly clear. And what it so clearly indicated was that Buffy
would return.
"The destruction of the golem shall signal the return."
When her body had vanished from the morgue, they had acted quickly
to cover up her death, holding an extremely private memorial and placing a
stone that Xander had had made in a small clearing. The soul binding had
failed, however. Willow and Tara had tried a number of times, eventually
coming to the unpleasant conclusion that Buffy's soul was beyond their
reach. The robot had been repaired, and the masquerade that the Slayer
was still alive had begun.
Then Giles had checked the codex. The literal prophecy could be
thwarted, yes. Turn off the bot, and it would not be destroyed. But that
would not prevent the return, it would simply allow it to happen without
anyone finding out. Instead, Giles had asked Willow to spend as much time
as possible on the bot's combat abilities. If it was Buffy herself, or
rather, her vampire counterpart, who was to destroy the Buffybot, then
either the improvements would be irrelevant, or perhaps, they might be
just enough for the bot to escape and warn them.
It was worth the effort. Willow had done an impressive job, with
Spike assisting her by tracking down Warren, and intimidating him into
providing help. Warren had eventually left Sunnydale, leaving behind a
note saying he was never coming back, don't come looking no matter what,
and leave him alone. Giles had politely not asked what Spike had done.
It had been months now. Whatever the demon wearing her skin was
planning, it would happen soon.
*****
L.A. seemed exactly the same as always. A bright glittering
veneer covering the second largest demon population in California. Plus
two pretenders. Acting as his own watcher wasn't the only con-game Adam
played. He had an account with the law firm Wolfram & Hart, claiming to
be a type of demon. The firm specialized in demon and vampire clients.
The name rang a faint alarm bell in Buffy's mind, probably just
something Angel had mentioned once. It wasn't likely there were a large
number of firms that catered to demons, of course. But she couldn't quite
remember what it was they had done. It didn't matter. She wasn't the
Slayer anymore, she was just another demon.
They had a meeting at the firm, early on the next day after
arriving. Adam wanted to set up an account for her. It was more than
just a law firm, they'd handle anything she might ever need, and Adam had
set up a financial transfer as well, all part of the keep Buffy out of the
Game plan. Which was fine by her, really. He'd explained on the trip
from Seacouver. He knew what a Slayer was. He knew about her strength.
And he wanted her safely out of the Game. A Slayer that did not stay dead
was a weapon against the vampires. One more immortal dragged into the
game was just a statistic, whether she won or lost. So she needed to
protect herself from the Game. Wolfram & Hart was the first step.
His only miscalculation was that Buffy misunderstood.
*****
Lilah Morgan wasn't having a good morning. She had a meeting with
a very important client in ten minutes, and instead of preparing, she was
listening to a self-important vampire whining about being tossed aside for
a girl who Angel hadn't even seen in over a year, hadn't dated for two
years, had killed him three years ago...
/"Ms. Morgan? Your ten o'clock is here."/
Lilah nearly groaned in relief, touching the intercom button.
"Please show them in." She stood, and made her way around the desk. "I'm
very sorry Darla, but I'll need to continue this later."
Darla momentarily considered killing her, but simply nodded
instead. She missed Lindsey, he always listened to her. She was halfway
across the room when Lilah's next meeting entered, a moderately handsome
man, followed by a short blond girl, who looked up just at that moment,
meeting Darla's eyes. Her feet stopped moving.
Buffy's eyes sparkled with delight. "Darla, weren't you dead?"
Her left arm brushed aside the long jacket, a sword blade appearing from
underneath it in the same motion. "Allow me to correct that."
"Oooo, scary," Darla hissed through her fangs. What in the hell
was she doing here?!
"What, no guns this time? It hardly seems fair without them."
Buffy playfully twirled the sword in her hand.
Lilah could see her bad morning was becoming a very bad morning.
The afternoon wasn't looking good either.
*****
Somehow, it had all settled down without any bloodshed. The older
changeling had simply ordered her to put away her sword without killing
Lilah's assistant, and she had done it. Darla, always quick to seize an
opportunity, had moved to close the door, taking her cue to act as an
assistant simply so she could find out why the Slayer was there.
For that's who she was. Buffy Summers, the Slayer. The one
before Faith, that is. And the other one that Drusilla had killed,
K-something. Yet the shocking part was that she too was a changeling.
Changelings were an unusual kind of demon breed, and more
secretive than most. The one who currently called himself Adam was in
fact their only client of the entire species. At least, until today.
Lilah knew that they were very long-lived, and always adopted into a human
family. The name was from the old stories of the fae swapping a newly
born human for one of their own, allowing human parents to raise the
child.
Darla was surprisingly useful when she was interested in
something, allowing Lilah to concentrate on contract details while Darla
questioned the demons. "You were never the real Slayer?"
Buffy's answering tone was somewhat flippant and amused. "Nope.
You can't have two slayers, but the Council never questioned it."
Lilah handed over the finalized contract to the male demon. "The
funds have been transferred as you've requested. All that remains is to
sign this, and you're all set." She watched as he read it over, then
pricked his finger, signing it in blood as was standard. There was an
odd electrical spark on his finger while he was signing. Lilah
countersigned, handing it next to Buffy.
Buffy cut herself without hesitation, squeezing the finger to
drain a few drops. She then turned her finger up, to watch the sparking
closure of the wound, still something she found amazing to watch. Lilah
found herself exchanging glances with Darla when it happened. Up until
that point, neither one had been quite sure that she really was a demon.
"That should do it. Legally, you are now Joan Elizabeth Miller.
If you have any questions, please feel free to..."
Darla cut her off, "Call her assistant. Anytime, night or day.
After all, it's my job."
*****
Lilah finished reading from her prepared notes. The majority of
the meeting attendees looked mildly bored, which was fine. She had taken
the time to include extraneous detail just for that reason. Not that the
special projects division was normally interesting, except when a project
was completed. She casually slid the notepad onto the table, and reached
back with her hand, as if about to sit down, then stopped and stood
upright again. "Oh, I almost forgot to mention. I had a meeting with
Buffy Summers today, and signed her as a client." She then sat down,
acting as if she hadn't dropped a bombshell.
Dead silence reigned as she straighted her papers, pretending not
to noticed the reactions. As she expected, a single voice came from the
far end of the table. "The Slayer?"
"From Sunnydale, yes, the one you're thinking of. She's not a
Slayer, though. Just a changeling demon." Lilah looked up at the head of
the table. Nathan Reed looked like he was on the verge of a facial
expression.
"A useful alliance. However, will this interfere with the Angel
project?"
Lilah fought to hide her smile. "Darla was in my office when she
arrived. After some initial posturing, they were quite friendly." Nathan
was so disconcerted she noticed a finger tapping the table.
"Cancel the Billy project. You will come up with a proposal to
make use of this connection."
Lilah allowed herself to smile. "Yes, sir."
*****
Buffy's voice made him pause as he reached the door. "He'll find
out eventually."
Adam's response was calm. "And certainly, precipitating it now
was wildly advisable. You should have mentioned you had history here."
"Oh, right. By the way, I have a vampire ex-boyfriend living in
L.A., so let's not go there."
Adam opened the door, surprising the woman standing there with her
hand raised to knock. "Oh, of course! Buffy, you have a guest." He made
his way past her with a grumble.
Buffy frowned, and made her way to the door, finding a rather
unexpected visitor. "Darla." She hesitated for a second. "Come in."
-- End Chapter Two
$Revision: 1.11 $
$Date: 2002/02/07 05:25:45 $